India is likely to spend over Rs 1 lakh crore on setting up of power plants based on renewable energy sources by the end of 2011-12, according to Devasis Majumdar, chairman and managing director of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)

“As per the target of the 11th Five Year Plan, power plants with a capacity of 14500 MW based on renewable energy sources would be set up by the end of 2011-12. So far, power plants with a capacity of 3,000 MW based on renewable energy sources have been set up at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore”, he said.

He was speaking at a seminar on Power Mart, organized by the North Zone regional office of CII-Orissa. Speaking on the occasion, Manish Verma, the Balasore district collector, said, India has a tremendous potential to generate 1,50,000 MW of power from the hydro power sources but we are yet to tap the hydro power in a big way due to some bottlenecks. He stressed upon the need to focus on solar power to sustain the development process. Stating that the distribution network and the plant load factor have to be strengthened to keep pace with economic development, Verma said, the Orissa government was committed to providing electricity to all people in the rural areas of the state.

Subrata Ray, vice-president (business development, Astonfield Management Consultancy (Private) Ltd, SK Singh, senior general manager, Visa Power Limited, PK Pradhan, general manager (operations) of North Eastern Electricity Supply Company Ltd (NESCO) and Prashant Panigrahi, managing director, Gayatri Engineering Construction & Consultancy (Private) Ltd also spoke on the occasion.

The seminar was attended by senior corporate executives from companies like Balasore Alloys Ltd, Bilrla Tyres, Emami Paper Mills Ltd, Oripol Industries Ltd, Visa Steel Ltd and Mayurbhanj Industrial Association, GMR Energy and Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC).